How to use your stress for good!
In the previous article, we discussed reframing your mindset on stress, improving your ability to handle stress when it arises.??While reframing your mindset is a necessary step, we must learn to rest and recover from stress. ???What happens to us when we get “stressed?”??Our bodies go through a generalized response.??Our heart, respiration, and sweat rates all increase, stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol push into our system, blood is pumped to our extremities, our digestion slows, and our desire for sex decreases. These are the same responses that occurred when we ran from the lions in pre-historic times, allowing us to survive.??While times have changed, we have yet to evolve. ?So, the email from your boss or your packed schedule can bring on this same response.??We call this the “fight or flight” or activating of the sympathetic nervous system.??This response is vital to our survival and our well- being. However, to grow, we must recover from this response, dialing up the parasympathetic side of the nervous system and the “rest and digest” response.
As you can see in the graph above, when we have a mild stressor, we respond and then our nervous system recovers with the parasympathetic rebound.??Where these responses become a problem is when the “fight or flight” becomes chronic. We evolved to have short, intense bouts of stress followed by a calm and relaxed state, where we stay most of the time.??We want the sympathetic side of the nervous system waiting in the background, ready to act when needed.??If not, we get stuck in a chronically stressed state of anxiety, fear, and overwhelm. This can lead to heart issues, sleep issues, and digestive issues.
To grow from stress, we must give ourselves periods of recovery. STRESS + REST = GROWTH!?For example, the benefits from workouts come in the recovery phase. We assimilate information in our sleep. In times of stillness, our brains can unlock the answers to the questions we’ve been diligently working on. How do we get into these restful states? To start, we must reframe stress as necessary for growth. Without it, we will stagnate, and our brains and muscles will atrophy. Second, we must learn tools to bring us out of a stressed state and give us that “space between stimulus and response.” This is where techniques such as breathwork and heat and ice exposure come in.?Slowing your breath down with diaphragmatic breaths calms the mind and body. The receptors in our brain are constantly spying on our breath rate and as it slows, everything else begins to slow. While this can be easy in the absence of stressors, to learn how to handle stressful situations when they arise, we have to practice by putting ourselves in difficult situations on the other side of our comfort zone. ?The ice is the perfect setting as it immediately sends us into fight or flight; our breath rate rapidly increases, and our mind says run! As you calm your breath, your mind begins to slow. You can add mantras like “easy day” or “let go” to help calm the mind. In seconds, everything relaxes, and you just might begin to enjoy it!?By putting yourself in situations beyond your comfort zone, you can learn how your body responds in stressful situations and practice tools to stay calm and alert instead of being emotional, reactive, or going off the deep end. These tools take practice and just as you can’t go to the gym once and stay fit, you can’t practice breath and mindset training once and think you will be able to use it when the bullets start flying. We all can improve how we manage our stress; it is up to each of us to make the choice.
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